In a Landscape of Fairy Tales and Dreams
by Helena Mira
Summary: The world of fairy tales, dreams and Jungian archetypes comes alive for the Everetts as they face their next challenge: Aunt Henrietta's arrical in town.


_The world of fairy tales, dreams, and Jungian archetypes comes alive as the Everett family approaches their next challenge, Aunt Henrietta._

_I do not own these characters and make no profit from their use._

**In a Landscape of Fairy Tales and Dreams**

**Prologue**

When Hal and Phoebe returned from their little honeymoon, he had been walking on air. After seventy-two hours of nearly uninterrupted time with his beautiful new wife, he felt rested and relaxed. When they walked into the house everything was under control. The kids came home from school and with the exception of one skirmish during homework time, everything seemed peaceful. It was good to know that his parents managed the house so well when they were away. It made him hopeful that they would be able to get away by themselves more frequently.

The only glitch was a mention by his father of some of Trelawney's eccentricities, but Phoebe seemed to get passed that easily. He hadn't told them anything that they didn't already know. Later that evening, they were having pleasant conversation in the living room when the first flare of trouble fired up. Prudence was saying her goodnights and, as usual, was stretching them out for as long as possible. His heart sank when he looked up and saw Trelawney standing before them, looking like a little white ghost in her nightgown. She stood up straight with her hands neatly folded in front of her. This always meant something was about to happen.

"Phoebe, the circus is coming to town," she said looking straight at her sister.

That was not as odd as would seem to an outsider. She often made these kinds of pronouncements. Initially, they would appear to be _non sequiturs _but later, when given a context, would make sense. It was her second action that was new. She hurled herself into his mother's arms and begged her to stay. He had often seen her cry, and this was about as hard as she ever had before. However, as soon as his father assured her that they would stay she calmed down, somewhat, and went back to bed, to no doubt cry herself to sleep there.

That left them with Prudence to explain what was going on. She had given Prudence permission to speak of all her "secrets." The difficulty was that it was impossible to know how much they could rely on Prudence since what she told them was a combination of what Trelawney had told her directly, what she had cried about in her sleep, and Prudence's own observations of Trelawney's insomnia and night terrors. Then Prudence went up because Trelawney missed her when she wasn't there.

After she left, his parents assured them that they would stay. Hal was relieved. At that moment, he was ready to take Phoebe back to the bed and breakfast and escape all this again. However, he knew that he couldn't. Instead he took her to their bed and tenderly made love to her. When they were together like this, the world slipped away and it was just them. The passionate excitement of the past few days had receded and was replaced by a calmer, yet deeper kind of lovemaking. It helped them to reconnect after what felt like a very long separation. It soothed their souls.

Now he lay awake holding his wife in his arms. She was curled up against him. Despite the upset, she was sleeping peacefully. She always slept peacefully with him. He liked the feeling of her body against his. Giving her one last kiss on the cheek, he fell asleep himself.

**Cries in the Night**

Hal heard the cries for help in his sleep. Phoebe was awakened as well. He opened his eyes to discover that she was sitting up and trembling violently. He immediately took her in his arms and assured that it would be all right. From the distance they could hear Trelawney's voice and then Prudence was at their door, knocking and crying for help.

They were dressed and in the girls' bedroom quickly. Phoebe rushed to her sister who was clearly hysterical and grabbed her by the shoulders. She was distraught because she couldn't find the "lovely lady." As soon as she locked her in her gaze, the girl became calm.

Apparently, as soon as they heard the upset, his parents had come in from their room next door. In an effort to comfort her, his mother had embraced her. His son Hal stood holding Prudence, whose face was buried in his shoulder tightly. Butch was peeking out from under his father's arm. Hal looked at the child in his mother's arms. Now calm, she looked frail. For the first time Hal noticed that her eyes were sunken and she looked too thin. He had Phoebe in his arms and he could tell that she noticed the same thing. He tightened his grip to remind her that he was here.

His father was great. He had forgotten how strong his father was in adversity. He remembered how much he had wanted that strength years ago when his first wife was sick and dying. But her mother had shut his parents out. His father looked towards him now. He nodded. He knew that they needed them, both his mother and father. He wanted them to know that he was grateful that they were there.

Using the language that Trelawney herself used to express her fears, he asked her if the lovely lady and the fair maiden were safe. She said yes. When he asked why, she answered that the good queen was there, but didn't know she was there.

"The good queen knows that she is here," said his mother. He watched as the child snuggled into her arms. The only other person that he had ever seen her be that demonstrative towards was his wife. His mother looked up and nodded to them. She was accepting the girl's trust.

When everyone was back in bed and his wife safely back in his arms, he lay awake thinking. They would no longer be able to keep the door locked for the entire night any more. It had probably never been a very good idea anyway. He could feel Phoebe huddling closer to him. He could tell that she wasn't sleeping. To sooth her he stroked her hair and softly kissed her. Finally, her breathing fell into an even pattern and she relaxed. Once she slept, he drifted off himself.

**In the Mind of a Child**

The next day, his parents, Phoebe, and he sat down with Prudence and Trelawney to try to piece together the story from Prudence's sketchy statements from the night before. The problem was that Trelawney had told Prudence of her fears in the form of the fairy tale she had originally constructed to understand her personal trauma when she was a younger child.

Some of her language was elliptical and arcane. Her normally quaint language became even more so when she was telling her stories. Her strong connection with the universal consciousness further muddied the waters. At this moment she seemed to be a combination of a mystic and a psychological head case. Untangling the threads of her stories into something comprehensible would not be easy.

It was a fortunate thing that Mother was a former English teacher whose doctoral dissertation had been about Tennyson's _Idylls of the King. _She also knew a good deal about Carl Jung's work in archetypes and their application to literature. Because of the fact that Trelawney's own story was rooted in her dreams, Mother's knowledge of the images and symbols could help them piece together the narrative and its potential psychological meanings.

As Trelawney spoke, his father jotted down notes. He was a retired civil engineer and he liked precision. The girl looked at him as he sat with his pencil and paper and quietly said, "It is permitted."

After the girls were done talking and sent away, they sat down together with Rob's notes to try and make sense out of them. The combination of the two pragmatic minds and the two intuitive minds went beyond complementary. Hal's mathematical mind was programmed for dealing with abstractions, while his father's focus was on practical applications.

Phoebe's intuitive nature was purely geared toward it's practical applications in human cares and concerns. His mother's intuition related more to analyzing images, metaphors, symbols, and myths in literature, like Hal's, an abstract form of reasoning. Together they composed an interesting tetrarch.

Consciously or unconsciously, Trelawney was expressing her deepest fears through the archetypal imagery that was liberally spread throughout the medieval stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Her trust in his mother was implicit. Hal believed that on some level, the girl had discerned that his mother had the ability to understand her well, without judgment, and that was why she had willingly given her trust to her.

He had always known Trelawney to be a fanciful child. She and Prudence would play with their dolls for hours making up their own stories and constructing their own worlds. Trelawney was exceptionally well-educated and had the wisdom of an "old soul." Yet when she was overhead playing with Prudence, she seemed to be only as old as the younger child, who was six.

The story had begun, as near as they could tell, with Trelawney as the fair maiden and Phoebe's ex-fiancé, who was the unicorn. The unicorn had laid his head in the lap of the fair maiden and "hurt" her. The story had been originally constructed by Phoebe's ex-fiancé, as a means of luring the child to trust him and allowing him to come near. No one knew about it until years after it happened, when he had reappeared to claim his bride.

Phoebe's ex-fiancé was no longer referred to by name. The name had acquired some sort of strength to it, which no one but Trelawney understood. The first time she had referred to him as "he who must not be named," the boys had laughed. Trelawney had looked so insulted that Hal, trying not to laugh himself, suggested that he thereafter be referred to as the ex-fiancé.

He, himself, was the gallant knight and had kept her safe and destroyed the unicorn. It was thought that all of this was laid to rest with the destruction of the symbolic unicorn, a small token that he had given Trelawney when he had come to collect Phoebe. However, although it was rarely mentioned in new details of her mental landscape that were emerging, the still phantom lurked in the shadows.

Prudence was now the "wee fairy" who lighted her darkness. She was no doubt the innocent child of Jung's archetypal family. Perhaps she was even a symbol of Trelawney's lost innocence. One of their secrets was that they slept at night with the light on. Another was that Prudence listened to her and comforted her when she had nightmares.

Sometimes, Prudence slept with her in her bed to make her feel safe. Prudence had only the vaguest idea of what it was really all about. However, she adored Trelawney as the sister that she had always wanted and therefore kept her confidences. This was very unusual for the child who was easily the biggest tattletale in the family.

Since their marriage, Phoebe had become the "lovely lady." Previously she had been the other fair maiden, but now that she was married she was no longer a maiden. His mother was the "good queen," and also the archetypal mother, whose function in the fantasy was to protect the others from the "evil witch." Since Trelawney was predicting that Aunt Henrietta, whoever she was, was coming to town, they made the assumption that she was the evil witch.

Phoebe wouldn't tell them much about her, other than to say that comparing Aunt Henrietta to an evil witch was something akin to comparing a quack with a neurosurgeon. At first glance it might seem to be a joke. However, although the one might be a ridiculous imitation of the other, she still could be capable of doing great harm if she tried a "cure" a situation that she truly didn't understand.

The danger lay in her inability to control things once they were set in motion. Apparently this frequently happened. She and Trelawney also didn't like each other which might further explain how Trelawney had assigned her role in the narrative. It was difficult to tell if perhaps she had been cast in this role for the girl's own amusement or because she recognized the potential for, what one might call, "evil through incompetence."

His mother was fascinated by Trelawney's very sophisticated constructions of the feminine and masculine archetypes. The good queen and the evil witch were very clearly the positive and negative elementary figures, the protector of life and the destroyer.

The fair maiden and the lovely lady were both different points on the spectrum of the positive transformative. Doubtless, in Trelawney's mind, the lovely lady would in time move further up the archetype into the role of the Madonna once Phoebe became pregnant and had her first child.

The gallant knight was obviously the hero and "the unicorn" seemed to be Trelawney's own construction of the trickster/the deceiver and the animal. The latter was the destroyer of maidens with his phallic horn. The aspect of the trickster that she had applied to the ex-fiance was that he had deceived Trelawney by making her believe that he was special and pure and she had seduced him. In fact, the opposite was true. The former had the power to rescue the maiden from danger. As the "gallant knight" he had saved both fair maidens, Trelawney and Phoebe, from the trickster.

His father had not yet been assigned a role, but Mother felt that he would eventually be the wisdom figure or the wise man. His kindness and thoughtful guidance, not to mention his age, certainly fitted in the archetype perfectly. His ability to comfort and communicate with her was singular.

Then there was the "family" back in England. From what she was able to ascertain from Phoebe, his mother felt that these were the stern father figures of the archetypal family. They were not necessarily negative, but they were strict and unyielding in their principles. It was their _personae _who maintained the traditions and structure of the patriarchy.

The whole concept of betrothal from birth was a patriarchal one. In Jungian terms it was an effort to control the reproductive power of the feminine. Not surprisingly, the family viewed their marriage as a "mixed marriage." Even a woman as strong as Aunt Justine had expressed concern for the bloodlines of the family.

Phoebe's rebellion was far more than just a personal preference for her mate. It was a threat to the power that men held over the community. The blessing that had been freely given by Aunt Justine had apparently only been grudgingly endorsed by the family back in England.

Then of course there was a rather amusing coincidence that his mother recognized once she had started to think of them all in terms of archetypal images in dreams and fairy stories. She noticed that together Hal and Phoebe made a "syzygy," what she, and he guessed Jung, viewed as a perfect animus-anima, or male-female, pair. Phoebe fit the pattern of the spontaneous and intuitive maiden, while Hal was the highly rational hero. Together they were soul-mates, navigating to treacherous waters of the universal consciousness together, perfectly matched, in mind as well as body.

Looking back on Trelawney's almost immediate recognition of the attraction between them, not to mention her own, this added to the sense of destiny that their marriage seemed to have been recognized even by the highly critical eyes of the Figalillys. On this level of the cosmos, it was their differences much more than their similarities that ultimately had drawn them together. Each completed something lacking in the other and thus they only found "wholeness" when together. The construction had great validity across cultures. For example, the Chinese view it as the yin and the yang.

Hal knew that his mother liked to think that it had essentially been the meddling on both of their parts, hers and Trelawney's, that had brought them together. Now understanding the Jungian scaffolding that surrounded Trelawney's thinking, she believed that the girl had known that Phoebe and Hal were their own cosmic opposites and therefore did everything that she could to promote the romance. Beyond the evidence that they understood each other and each other's minds very well, there was also a physical attraction. Since Trelawney had the ability to discern the thoughts of others, this would have given her further reason to believe that she and Mother were natural allies.

After his mother had put out her recognition of the "syzygy" in relation to Phoebe and himself, Hal had pointed out that the same paradigm could be equally applied to his parents. She just smiled and told him that that explained how they had stayed married for over fifty years. Phoebe fondly shook her head at this observation and said that if that was the case then she felt very lucky to have found him. She was unconcerned about the effects of her marriage on the hierarchy of the Figalillys. Hal wasn't so sure that they could be dismissed so easily.

"The Angel" whom they believed to be Pastor Jason, was a male transformative of another sort. He was her messenger from God and guide through her troubles. Of all the adults who knew her, for some reason that Hal did not fully understand, he understood Trelawney best.

In addition to his theological background, he had a degree in counseling. Over the summer he had helped to free both Trelawney and Phoebe from their demons. Trelawney's trust in him was absolute and he seemed to be the only person who could help her to control her impulses.

Hal knew that he could not possibly be a literal angel. Such things did not exist. However, if this image comforted the child and allowed her to accept his guidance, he was prepared to play along. Additionally, Pastor Jason was a very good friend to them all. Earlier that day, his parents had brought Phoebe to him and he had helped calm her fears for the moment.

Pastor Jason was a very strong advocate for his parents staying in town. He obviously knew something about their importance in keeping the family both whole and healthy. Trelawney's mind had become so closely aligned with the universal consciousness that she was sensitive to the power of the different individuals in her life. Even without Pastor Jason to tell her, she had known intuitively how to bring together those forces that would protect her from whatever it was that she thought was against her.

Hal had never given much thought to Jung before, or to such things as dream analysis and psychological imagery. However, the paradigms, as presented by his mother and demonstrated by Trelawney's fantasy world were compelling. Now that they were able to understand the Jungian interpretation of her tale, it was clear that she had unconsciously ascribed the four positive aspects of the masculine-feminine archetype to their "tetrarch."

To test her, Hal had casually dropped Jung's name in relation to mythology. The girl had merely looked puzzled. Her head might be stuffed full of myths and fairy tales, but she had never analyzed them. His mother shook her head at him when he told her. She simply said that the child did not analyze the fairy stories. She lived them.

**The Advance of the "Evil Witch"**

That was the beginning of an uncertain time. Somehow Trelawney had sensed that their Aunt Henrietta was coming to town. The Figalillys had threatened to send a family member to keep close eye on the two sisters. In the case of Phoebe they wanted to make sure that she was not with child before they had married. Phoebe was definitely not pregnant before the wedding, but it was still nerve-wracking to think that someone would be on guard to watch for it.

Trelawney was an entirely different story. Like all Figalillys she was deeply sensitive to what they called the universal consciousness (although their understanding was not related to Jung's) and had very strong psychic gifts. Unfortunately, she was an extremely sensitive and impulsive eleven-year-old girl grieving for her parents. She was emotionally very volatile at the moment.

Aunt Henrietta was there to look for evidence that Trelawney must return home to the village to be raised by family who understood her gifts and could shelter and protect her. But separating her from Phoebe would break his wife's heart. She had sworn to guard the child as she held her in her arms only minutes after she was born. Before her parents had died she had renewed that vow, just before she came to the Everett household. Therefore, he was determined to prove to them that they could help Trelawney to safely grow up in their own world.

Hal was rather surprised at how easily the household slipped into a comfortable rhythm with his parents living there. It was not easy for two women to run a house jointly, particularly if they were in-laws. But Phoebe and his mother were not your average in-laws. They shared an ever deepening mother-daughter relationship. It was underpinned not only with love, but understanding. Having developed the relationship later in life, it was not clouded by past conflicts or issues.

Hal and Phoebe might be strengthened by their differences, but for Mother and Phoebe it was their similarities. On another plane, they filled needs in one another in a complementary manner. He had always known that Mother was hurt and disappointed by Helen's rejection of her efforts at friendship. This was because of Helen's difficulties with her own interfering mother. Sadly, Helen had read Mother's offer of friendship as opening the door to another dominating mother in her life, not to mention one who had the potential to generate conflict with her own mother. Phoebe was not only the ideal wife, she was, like Esther in the Bible, the ideal daughter-in-law.

He was very busy at the university. He had gotten past midterms, but taking three days off in the middle of the semester had made his work pile up. His parents had stayed to help them find more time together as a couple, but he had so much work that it was difficult. There were times when his father would announce that they were taking the children on an outing and demand that he leave his study and spend time with his wife.

It always made him feel guilty, mostly because he knew that if left up to his own devices he would probably have neglected Phoebe. Of course she never complained, but he knew that she enjoyed every minute of their time alone. However, having his parents there had another unexpected benefit.

When his parents had taken Phoebe to see Pastor Jason for advice and counsel the day after the initial nightmare, he was able to sooth some of Phoebe's fears. He also insisted that his parents be given custody of Trelawney. Surprisingly, neither sister objected. Phoebe had stoically accepted the decision, although she cried many private tears in his arms.

While Pastor Jason had left the final decision up to them, they all knew that it was for the best. Hal tried to explain that it was a legal formality which would make their position stronger to keep the child with them, but she felt that it was a reflection on her ability to raise her sister. His parents promised her that they would never try to separate her from her sister or come between them. She was only just adjusting to this change when Aunt Henrietta showed up.

Within minutes of their introduction, Aunt Henrietta took up an adversarial position with him. She was clever enough not to pursue this position overtly, but she made it obvious in little ways that she did not approve of the match. She made it clear that she felt that the marriage was a mistake and that now Phoebe was stuck in one place, in a dreary rut forever.

Trelawney reacted to Aunt Henrietta with a combination of amusement and fear. The amusement was what she projected to the outside world as her defense mechanism. However, the fear ran very deep.

The night before she came, before anyone else knew she would be arriving the next day, she woke up crying loudly at two o'clock in the morning. She had disrupted their sleep two other times since the big nightmare, but this was the worst.

She was inconsolable, even by Phoebe and his mother. At one point he was afraid that he would have to call Pastor Jason in the middle of the night. However, his father was finally able to get through to her. It was odd that he, a civil engineer and a man devoted to numbers and the, literally, concrete world, could have communicated so well with the imaginative child. However, at two in the morning, Hal had no desire to question it.

"My poor little fair maiden," he said. "Why are you so sad? Your tears are frightening to wee fairy. And the lovely lady is beside herself."

"The fair maiden is afraid," she said. "She is afraid that the good queen is too good and will not be able to stand up to the evil witch."

"What about the gallant knight?" he asked.

"Evil witches hate gallant knights. They seek to destroy them as they do fair maidens," she replied.

"Perhaps the good queen could defeat the evil witch if she had some help. Is there anyone who can help the good queen?" his mother asked.

Trelawney's response for her was odd. Usually, she was able to generate a character, an archetypal figure, to fit the bill. This time she couldn't. Catherine even knew who it should be. But she seemed worn out by her exertion and her anxiety.

"Ask the angel. The angel knows all," she said.

"Can the angel save the fair maiden from the evil witch?" asked Catherine.

"It is not allowed. The angel provides guidance. But humans must act for themselves," she said quietly.

They were all quiet. Then, clearly discouraged, Trelawney said, "Where is my wee fairy? I want to go to sleep."

Prudence was already half-asleep. She climbed into bed and huddled against her. The girls slept side by side holding hands.

By the time they left the room they were all suffering from emotional as well as physical exhaustion. Phoebe looked shell shocked and Hal's heart ached for her. This should have been one of the happiest times of their lives, yet the trouble with her sister was casting a pall over the whole house. It didn't seem fair to any of them.

"We can't even begin to think about this tonight," said his father, reading his thoughts and trying to defuse his frustration with the child. "You two go to bed. Hal, you have to get some sleep. Phoebe, it will be alright. Whatever it takes, we will save her from the evil witch."

Hal took his wife to bed and held her close until she fell asleep. He remembered when Phoebe had had nightmares a few months ago. She had woken him up, but not the whole house. Like Trelawney, she had been chased by shadows. Trelawney's were worse, but now they had the care and comfort of his parents. Once again he was grateful to the angel.

Thus the initial meeting with Aunt Henrietta was fated to be problematic.

**A Visit with the Angel**

Before Trelawney had to deal with Aunt Henrietta, Phoebe wanted her to see Pastor Jason. Knowing Aunt Henrietta as she did, Phoebe was still having a hard time viewing her as a real threat. There was nothing the least bit malevolent about her. None of the Figalillys took her seriously and therefore it seemed absurd to her that Trelawney, who should have known better, would. In the present context, she was, at worst, a "paper tiger."

His parents volunteered to pick her up at school and take her to his office. Nobody knew exactly when or where Aunt Henrietta might show up, but it was highly unlikely that it would be either at the school or the Trinity Church. On the drive over, they noticed that some streets had been blocked off for a circus parade. Trelawney said nothing but gave them a look that said, "I told you so." However it was not her usual triumphant look. It was one of resignation.

As always, Pastor Jason was available on demand for Trelawney. He had also heard of the arrival of the circus in town and thus had expected the visit. She was clearly in need of his guidance. When the girl entered his office with the Everetts he could immediately sense her fear.

Catherine was just as protective of her as she had been of Phoebe. Rob, as always, projected strength. Trelawney was subdued. He could see that she was not only mentally frail, but physically weakened as well. This would never do. It would only give the family more a valid reason to reclaim her custody.

"My dear, Trelawney," he said kindly. "You have not been eating or sleeping."

She shrugged. He realized that the physical frailty was exacerbating the mental weakness.

"Trelawney," he said gently, but sternly. "You must eat and sleep. If you fall ill while in your sister's care, it will give the family good reason to take you away."

In the past this would have generated a spirited rejoinder, but today she merely shrugged.

"Pastor, now that we have full custody," said Rob. "We will fight with everything that we have to keep her here."

"It will do you no good unless she cooperates," explained Jason. "You cannot argue that you are the better guardians if the child is wasting away before you."

"Trelawney, dear," said Catherine. "You must help us in this. When I asked for help last night, you said to ask the angel. We are now asking him and he says that you must build your strength back up. We cannot force you to eat or sleep. We cannot protect you against yourself."

She looked up at them all. For once she seemed uncertain. It then occurred to Jason that she knew something that the Everetts could not hear.

"Rob and Catherine," he said. "I think that I will have to ask you to leave for a few minutes. I believe that Trelawney needs to unburden herself to me as her spiritual advisor. Is this so?"

"This is so," said the child simply.

Catherine and Rob looked at each other. They were concerned, but they were aware of Phoebe's trust in this young man to help her sister. Before they left, Catherine kissed her head and whispered, "We will be right outside if you need us."

Trelawney nodded mutely.

After they left, Jason sat before her. He took her hands and looked into her eyes and said, "Tell me."

"Maisie is very near. I feel her soul is rapidly approaching. It will be soon that she makes her final descent. Soon she will be home. Close to the heart of the lovely lady," she said.

"You are sure of this?" he asked. There was something both awesome and frightening about this pronouncement. The child had a tremendous psychic power, if she were aware of the approaching soul of an unborn child. It was frightening because this information was now in the mind of an impulsive young girl.

"I am sure," she replied. "I do not want to know this. But now that I know it, I cannot unknow it. You are my angel. You must help me. I do not want to break my sister's heart."

They had reached a crucial point. The child knew that she was a danger to the ones she loved best. But he could not tell her what to do. He could only point her in the right direction.

"There may come a time when you must leave the side of the lovely lady. Go to no one, and I mean no one, except the good queen. Do you understand?" he asked.

"Yes," she repeated. "If I must leave the side of the lovely lady, I may only go to the good queen. Is the good queen strong enough?"

"The good queen, just as all of you, is under the protection of the wise gentleman. You know that he is here, but until today you did not know that he is here. He will care for you all. Now I am going to call them back in," responded Jason.

When Rob and Catherine entered, they looked concerned. However, when they looked at Trelawney, it was obvious that the child was at greater peace. Jason had made progress.

"Trelawney will return home now and do a better job of eating and sleeping. She does not want to concern anyone," said Jason.

"I know that I must put myself into the care of the good queen and under the protection of the wise gentleman," said Trelawney obediently, turning to them. "The lovely lady is in the care and protection of the gallant knight. She is otherwise concerned."

Catherine reached out and drew her into her arms. She was relieved that the child had finally recognized Rob. Jason could see that she understood her role in this cosmological drama better than he had hoped that she might. He would need to talk to her further about it sometime.

"Sweet little Trelawney," said Rob. "I assure you that we are here to care for and protect you all. We understand your special need at this time. We will assure the lovely lady that you are now in our special care."

As always, Trelawney said something odd, "You must watch me closely. I would not want to break my lovely lady's heart."

She buried her head in Catherine's shoulder and began to softly cry. As Catherine comforted her, Rob looked at Jason who shrugged. He could not tell him what he wanted to know. It was bad enough that Catherine had an idea. Rob's faith and wisdom were such that he would not need that information to serve his purpose. His heart would lead him to right action.

Before he let them go, he blessed them all. They would need great strength to pass through the next few months. Such strength could only come from God. Jason was very grateful that they were all true believers.

**Epilogue**

When they returned home, they discovered that Aunt Henrietta had been and gone. Rob was not sorry that they had missed her, other than he wished that he could have been there to support his son. In the midst of all this, it appeared that something else was bothering Phoebe. Hal knew what it was and seemed to be trying to cheer her up. Trelawney was looking at her in an odd way, as if she knew what was wrong as well. But she said nothing.

After Catherine and Phoebe went off to make dinner, the young girl announced that it was time for her to do her homework. But before she went upstairs, she stood before Hal and said a single word.

"Soon."

Rob had no idea of what she meant, but his son clearly did. He patted her head and kissed her cheek and answered, "I know."

Whatever had passed between them, it was their secret. But it had made them both happy. They smiled at each other before Trelawney went skipping upstairs to her room.

Hal looked after her and said, "Why do you twist my heart this way and that, little Trelawney?"

After a moment of silence, Rob said, "It is because you are a gallant knight and you see a fair maiden distress. However, as a father, you do not like the way she is turning your household upside down and disrupting your wife's peace of mind."

"Very true," mused Hal thoughtfully. "Very true."

"Son," said Rob. "She knows that she may need to come into our care, if it is best for her sister. She has a powerful love for Phoebe."

"I know," said Hal. "Since she's come to live with us, I have always had the sense that she is more concerned for her sister's happiness and safety than her own. At one point, she was ready to return home and go to boarding school so that Phoebe could stay with me. She recognized the attraction that we were, at that time, still denying and didn't want to stand in the way of her sister's happiness."

"Her loyalties run deep," agreed Rob. "Your mother is concerned that she might be willing to sacrifice herself, in perhaps a more literal way to protect her sister."

Hal felt cold. "We cannot let that happen. It would destroy Phoebe."

"Mother and I will do everything we can to prevent it," he said firmly. "But you will have to convince Phoebe that it some point we may need to take her into physical custody."

Hal thought for a moment. He did not want to create any unnecessary stress for Phoebe at this time. She was doing a pretty good job of generating that for herself without any help from him. Trelawney's single word to him had let him know that he had some planning of his own to do. He was determined to make good on his wedding gift promise to his wife. Even without Trelawney telling him, he knew that the time was fast approaching when little Margaret would be with them.

"Dad," said Hal at last. "I think that at some point Phoebe will be willing to put Trelawney into your care. She will know that it is best for all concerned. At this time, I prefer to not to mention it. It would only give her something else to worry about. We will cross that bridge when we come to it."

"You know your wife best, Hal," replied his father. "Mother and I will be guided by your judgment in this."

Hal returned his father's smile with a cryptic one of his own. He did know Phoebe best. He would be sure that no one broke his lovely lady's heart.

**The End**

_To be continued . . ._


End file.
